[Book 14/52] Managing Time by HBR

I have always been a master procrastinator. The reasons I procrastinated are:

I don’t want to do it

I am not good at doing it

I find it too laborious

Managing Time me deconstruct my procrastinator mind and helped understand what I need to when I stuck in the reasons mentioned above.

It was suggested in this book, that I keep track of my time based on various categories for two weeks. Using this data, I could organise and create targets of where I want to spend my time most. I cut short my lunch times, which is by choice. I also planned for a 20-minute nap post lunch which kept me productive for the rest of the day.

I realised that just by tracking time I could be more focused at work and stay away from distractions. The moment I was distracted I felt guilty of noting down a wasted time. During the waiting period, I used to focus on some training material, and that wait could squeeze in learning during the work days.

Being a perfectionist, I always loose interest in something that I plan and things don’t turn out the way I planned. When this happened, which was always, I used to get demotivated. The managing time book made me understand that it’s ok to deviate from what you planned to do. The idea is to keep improving the system. Only when you stick to tracking your time efficiently, will you be able to set goals for tasks.

If you are a person, who if often tired of making a decision on what tasks to do when – this book is for you. You can read this book under 20 minutes but its essential you track your time religiously for three weeks to reap the maximum benefits of this book.